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Dean Foods says it will "accelerate" a cost-cutting plan to compensate for an anticipated single-digit decline in fluid-milk volume this year. "[W]e expect to accelerate cost reduction activities in 2013 through, among other things, closing 10-15% of our plants," according to a company report.

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According to Deloitte's annual American Pantry Study, brand loyalty has dropped a third straight year, with nearly 90% of shoppers saying they sometimes choose private-label products over national brands they purchased in the past. "The playing field has fundamentally changed," said Pat Conroy, vice chairman and U.S. consumer producers leader at Deloitte. "It will not go back to the way it was right before the recession."

With sales of private-label products increasing during the past five years, the industry's top player has become ConAgra Foods, which recently purchased Ralcorp for $6.8 billion. Previously, makers of private-label brands were not widely known to the public, says John Stanton, a food-marketing professor.

Spartan Stores has chosen KSS Retail to provide advice and strategies for price optimization. "The benchmarking that KSS provides against other retail customers and the ability to make real-time changes in pricing will help us become more competitive," said Kathy Alles, the retailer's director of retail pricing and data integration.

A report from Brick Meets Click says 66% of retail executives are involved in Big Data projects, using such analytics to support decisions and engage shoppers. "In less than a year, we've seen Big Data evolve from the province of data scientists to a tool that's creating value on both the demand and retail sides of retailing," lead author Bill Bishop said.

Saputo has completed the $372 million acquisition of Neilson Dairy. The acquisition of the dairy division of Weston Foods will allow Saputo to increase its presence in Ontario, Canada, in the fluid-milk and cream markets, the company said.